The Innocence of Youth
by Phil929
Summary: Young Ryan and Trey are alone in their bedroom while Dawn is accomodating her new "guest". Trey's left alone to care for his little brother.


"Why does mommy always drink that yellow stuff

Hi,

So two things really:

Here, I have that Ryan is 6 and Trey is 9 and their dad is in jail. Now, I realise that in the "My Two Dads", they say that Frank went in jail when Ryan was 10. However in the "Gamble" Dawn says that they moved to Chino after their dad was arrested. Then in season 3 Theresa says that their first kiss was on her 6th birthday. So, they messed up the age that Ryan was when his dad was put away. In this version, Ryan was 5 when his dad was put in jail 

This idea of mine was based around the toy car that Trey gave Ryan on his 18th birthday. You'll see why later on in the story. Oh and it's been written with the prompt "Why?" from my fanfic 100 table.

What a lengthy beginning! Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

The Innocence of Youth

"Why does mommy always drink that yellow stuff?"

Trey looked down at the blonde boy sitting beside him. He was looking up at him with those bright, blue, innocent eyes. When he didn't reply, Ryan nudged him.

"Why Trey? It always makes her feel sick in the morning and she doesn't listen to me when I remind her that while she's drinking it. Does she like getting sick from it?"

Ryan was looking at him as if he was some kind of God or superhero who knew the answers to everything.

He shrugged. "I dunno, I guess she must just like the taste," he said lamely thinking back on their father doing the same thing.

"But it makes her sick?" Trey could see the confusion painted on his little brother's face.

"Ryan enough with all the questions, okay? I don't know why she drinks, now just be quiet," he snapped.

Ryan looked away, his eyes filling up with tears. He stood up slowly from Trey's bed and moved over to sit on his own.

He picked at the bright cast on his arm that was covering half his arm. Guilt pointed its grubby finger at Trey but he was sick of Ryan asking all these stupid questions that he really didn't know any of the answers too.

_Why does mommy drink, Trey? Why does she have a different boyfriend every week, Trey? Why is daddy in jail, Trey? Why do they hit us, Trey? _

Trey wished sometimes that he had an older brother who had all the answers so Ryan would ask him instead and Trey could learn the answers as well.

They were quiet for a while and Trey watched as Ryan kept picking at his cast.

"Is your arm hurting?" he asked and the six year old nodded, his eyes filling with tears,

Trey sighed and walked over to him, He'd promised his dad that he'd look after Ryan and he wasn't about to break it.

He awkwardly pulled him into gentle hug and rubbed his back, making sure to mind his arm.

Ryan relaxed into the hug and his small, good arm encircled around Trey's abck in response.

Trey noticed how Ryan kept glancing at his broken arm and he searched his mind over what he could do to take his brother's mind off it.

"Do you want to play with my cars?" Trey asked pulling away. Ryan nodded eagerly and Trey pulled away before dropping to his knees and looking around under his bed.

"Aha," he called out, shuffling out from under the bed backwards, the box of cars in his arms.

He put the box down and picked out his favourite car. He showed it to Ryan. "One day Ryan, we'll escape together. Just you and me. We'll drive off into the distance and start a new life and be rich. All the millionaires will look poor next to us and all the pop stars will want our autograph."

Ryan giggled and picked up the car from his brother's outstretched hand. Trey's eyes zoomed onto the newspaper that was littering the floor.

His mom had thrown it into the room along with other junk that had been on the floor in the lounge. T had been an effort to tidy the place up before her date arrived.

She'd told the two of them to stay in the room and they were under strict orders not to leave it.

He picked up the newspaper and his eyes scanned the first page. Some millionaire from Newport beach's wife had just died. There was a picture of a bald man with another man and a woman. The woman was holding a curly haired boy, who looked around Ryan's age. They were all standing together, obviously at the funeral service.

"See look Ry, you'll be best friends with him and I'll have long conversations with this guy…" he read the names under the picture. "Sandy Cohen."

Ryan peered at the picture. "They look sad, do you think she'll be drinking tonight to feel better?" he pointed at the woman.

She wore large, black sunglasses and her blonde hair lay haphazardly on her shoulders in disarray.

"Maybe… I don't know." What had started as a fun game, had quickly turned right around back to the same questions as before.

Ryan yawned and Trey looked at the cheap watch on his arm. "It's time for bed, I think Ry."

The little boy pouted and shook his head.

Trey sighed, he hated it when his brother gave him a hard time.

"Come on, the sooner you go to bed, the sooner we'll be millionaires with these guys."

"Is mommy going to come in and kiss me goodnight?" Ryan asked, looking up at him hopefully.

"Mommy has a visitor but I'm sure she'll come in later when he leaves. But if you're still awake, you'll get me in trouble." He warned.

Ryan sighed loudly but crawled into his bed and under his blanket.

Dawn had made sure that Trey got Ryan bathed and in his pyjamas before Roger or Rupert or whoever he was had arrived.

Trey turned off the light. It wasn't like he could go anywhere or do anything, so he climbed into his bed as well.

"Night Trey," the small voice said.

"Night, LB"

Trey settled down in his bed listening to his mother laughing flirtatiously.

He wished fervently that his dad would just come home and they could move back to Fresno. He'd loved living there. He missed his friends and Mrs Beatrice, his teacher. His new teacher was depressed all the time and didn't have any control over the class.

However, Trey had learnt long ago, wishes didn't come true and having a dream didn't mean anything at all.


End file.
